You Can Talk to the Dead!

What a rather psychic sounding title for a blog post, rest assured there is nothing weird with where we are going with this. There are all manner of different ways people will tell you will allow conversations with the dead.

One that has gained a popular revival through its more frequent appearances as a character is in films. You know the format, couple of people having a

Is There Anyone There?

laugh unwittingly released a demonic presence hell bent on turning everyone into a Kentucky Fried Chicken dinner. But in all seriousness, using one of these would be such a slow conversation as it is done a letter a time. It would take a week just to find out who you were talking to!

There is of course the seance, (Transfiguration as it is also known.), does not have to be a room full of people, as is the normal image. could be just you and the medium. They go into a trance supposedly the one you want to communicate with then uses their body as a vessel. These though always seem short lived, conversation is never very interesting, it is not a relaxed way to talk with someone, even if they are dead.

We here at Harlam do rather like the rather odd, Psychic Telephone, not the modern ones here you call a premium rate number to speak to some unknown medium. This one is, or rather was, a head set which was attached to an inflated balloon. The idea here is the spirit you want to talk to somehow vibrates this against a microphone that you can then hear.

God forbid neither are we talking about some ritual involving sacrifice with weird objects, pentagrams, candles laid out in patterns along with odd chanting. You might accidentally summon someone you really don’t want to be talking to! No, we genuinely believe there is a more rational idea in which people can converse with lost loved ones.

Although the main idea is about talking to people we have known, who have now passed on, there is an initial thought we want to talk though with you which lays the basis for it.

Like so many others Lamo experienced one of the most profound times in his life when his mother died. When she had been alive acted as his mentor, confidant as well as very often psychiatrist but in whatever guise, having a huge influence on him.

There are many quotes about why people are still with us even though they are dead;

“As long as we remember a person, they are not really gone. Their thoughts, their feelings, their memories, they become a part of us.” – Justin Cronin

Or even from Lamo’s favorite late great author;

“Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?” – Terry Pratchett (Going Postal)

Both of these are very relevant to our Harlam thought we want to share with you here. Let us consider why is a memory of a person that is no longer here any less real than the person themselves? After all it is created in the very same mind that perceives both versions of them. Whilst one is generated by their physical presence through the senses the second is created by their memories. As they are formed in the same mind are they not exactly the same in our reality?

Both perceptions make the person real to us, regardless of how they are generated. It must follow to reason if the memory makes them real then they still exist even after the physical death. They do not die until no memory of them exists anywhere. This is why we believe while they remain in our memory they are as real as the person sat next to you on the bus.

With this concept in mind we move to how we here at Harlam believe it is possible to talk to the dead. After his mum died Lamo heard one of the most profound thoughts ever in his life which became something he believes in today. Talking to a friend shortly after her untimely death the conversation went like this;

“I wish my mum was here so I could talk to her about this”“Why can’t you talk to her?”“Well she’s dead.”“But you know what she would say if she were alive don’t you, so you can still talk to her.

Lamo’s friend was actually right. Even though that person is not physically here is of no consequence. Why? They exist in the form of our memories of them and we can talk to them just as easily as our own self. The important thing is because, like Lamo, you spent so much time talking about all manner of things in the past with them you sub consciously know what they would say as if they were sat with you now. Your not making the conversation up as might be with an imaginary character, it is genuinely two way.

We should point out though that whilst you can hold this post death chin wag with anyone there is a formula to bear in mind. “Accuracy Of Conversation = Closeness of relationship + Number Of Conversations.” It should go without saying the better you know the person, a parent, sibling or a best friend the more your talk with them will be true to the person they were when alive. If however it was a distant Aunt that you only saw wheeled out at other funerals and weddings, then your not really going to know what they might have said.

Remember no one is gone whist we carry their memory which makes them as real as they ever were. All the time they exist then of course we can still talk with them for that conversation is real to!